Posts Tagged 'Vanilla'

Once a year I make strawberry jam. My husband loves it and so does my coworker who bullies me into making her a couple of jars. Haha, hi Iris! I am just joking.

It is so easy and quick that I refuse to buy jam or marmalade. Especially when you have this wonderful pectin called „Gelierzucker 3:1“. What it means is that you use 1,000g of fruit and between 250g to 350g of sugar. Way better than 1,000g fruit to 1,000g sugar. I prefer my jam on the lighter side with less sugar. Feel free to add more if you like it that way.

Strawberry Jam with Vanilla

1,000g strawberries washed and hulled

Pectin 3:1 or whichever brand you prefer

250g -350 sugar

1 vanilla bean, cut in half and seeded

Put strawberries in a pan and bring to a gentle boil. Mix sugar with pectin and scrape the vanilla bean. Add the sugar mixture and the scraped vanilla seeds PLUS the bean to the pan and bring to a rolling boil. Let it boil until the strawberries break down and the mixture begins to thicken. Discard the vanilla bean.

Fill the jam in prepared clean jars. I usually put my jars in a water bath and let it boil for another 10min. Now enjoy!

While in Germany Ronny’s sister Mandy visited us and baked this wonderful Quark cake with cherries and raspberries. I pestered her so long that she caved and gave me the recipe she found in the internet.

It is soft, it is moist and so wonderful with the fruits. It was a great way to celebrate the summer. Mandy was also kind enough to act as my photo model.

Melt the margarine and let it cool down. To assemble the dough just add all the ingredients. Keep 1/4 of the dough and spread the remainder onto a baking tray on a baking sheet. Press down lightly.

Mix all the ingredients apart from the fruit for the topping and pour on top of the dough. Add the fruit.

Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 30-35 minutes.Enjoy!

I leave you with this picture and hope you enjoyed the cake. We certainly did. I am certain it will work with all kinds of fruit and I am determined to bake it again. I will let you know how it turned out.

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One last smoothie recipe before we pack our bags tonight. Next stop big sis‘ house where we will stay another four days. My two sisters are great cooks and baker. One is a professional cook and the other one passionate and full of creativity. They promised to share some recipes with me and I cannot wait.

Oh how I wish I had more time….sigh. Reality is that we will have to pack up the rest of our belongings and store them in a container for a month until our new house is ready. At this point I am not sure how much cooking I will get done.

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It is not that easy to find savoury recipes with vanilla. If you know one and would like to share it- I am all ears. I had this one bookmarked for ages but never had the right vanilla bean or was hesitant to „waste“ one whole bean on something I did not bake. Well, lessons learnt! Now I have the right ingredients and no excuse not to cook it. It is delicious and light and I ate it all.

Bring broth and seeded vanilla bean to boil and add the butternut squash. Cook the squash until tender and then take out the squash and put it aside. Discard vanilla bean.

In a saucepan add the margarine and the onion. Cook until translucent before you add the risotto rice. Stir while risotto cooks for about a minute. Then add the wine, salt and slowly add some of the broth you cooked the squash in. About 1/2 cup every time until the risotto absorbs the liquid, then add another 1/2 cup. Stir often to reach a creamy consistency. I did not add parmesan but feel free to. I thought it tasted pretty awesome and did not need the cheese.

This months assignment for the Cookbook of Colors is an easy one compared to the light-blue and blue assignment- PINK!

My brain went to work…slowly..it took its time, I tell you. I did not want to use strawberries or raspberries because they are not in season and do not taste that great at the moment. They will get their chance in the summer.

When I went through my freezer I found (yes, that happens when chaos reigns in your freezer) a bag of cranberries.

Here is what I did:

Cook the cranberries with some water and enough sugar to take the edge of the sourness. Add some cinnamon and make sure you have a lid on because these babies pop open and spray your stove with a beautiful red stain. I will say no more…..Let it cook down until it reaches a consistency of jelly.

Then I baked the Vanilla Cake in the cute Easter-Egg-molds that I bought on sale. There is nothing better than Sale items🙂

Once the cake/eggs are cooled down I cut out a small hole and ate the dough. Well, no waste, right?

Now get some cream and beat until light and fluffy and quite stiff. Add enough of the cranberry sauce to create the pink color you prefer. Fill the holes in the vanilla cake/egg with the cream and lick your fingers. That is an order! Ta-da my pink sweet deviled eggs!

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Since I am giving away 10 juicy vanilla beans I thought I feature some vanilla recipes that I made using real vanilla beans. When last sunday came around I was in the mood for waffles and the recipe is real easy and yummy.

You probably think I lost it completely but bear with me. This soup is to die for (please don’t)! Since I had these amazing organic vanilla beans from the Vanilla Food Company I decided to cook and bake several recipes with them. I will post them soon.

I came across the company by accident when I was searching for a place selling good quality vanilla beans. I will continue buying from this company because the beans are the best I ever had. Being so used to the expensive storebought vanilla beans I was pleasantly surprise by the price they offered the beans for. I still had one bean I had bought at the supermarket for 3$+ and although I stored it in a dark place and had not even opened the container, the bean was dry and brittle. The only thing it was useful for was to go in the jar with my homemade vanilla sugar.

The bean from the Vanilla Food Company was juicy and smelled sooo good. I wish you could smell the bean! When I prepared the recipe below, the knife, the countertop I cut it on and my hands were smelling of vanilla. Can it get any better than this? The company offers different varieties of vanilla beans including the organic ones I bought. Hop over to their site and see for yourself! They also sell a wide variety of baking supply that makes me want to order one from each item. So if you are into serious baking then it is the right company for you.

GIVEAWAY
I am so excited because The Vanilla Food Company graciously sent me some of their products to either try myself or to give away and I decided to give away products over the next four weeks – so stay tuned!

This week I am giving away 10 Vanilla Beans – Madagascar Bourbon – GRADE A. All you have to do is leave me a comment what product you would chose from the Vanilla Food Company if you had the choice. You have until April 2, 2012 Noon Calgary time to participate. A winner will be randomly chosen. If you do not have a blog, please ensure to leave your email address so that I can get in touch with you. The Giveaway is open to everybody!

In addition, for a short period of time the Vanilla Food Company offers to waive the shipping cost if you spend over $125 and have a Canadian address to ship it to. The following code is valid as of today until May 6, 2012: PS201204

Why not get together with a couple of friends to order and start a baking party? Unfortunately, my friends here in Canada are all in Tax busy season buh! Easter is coming up and there will be a lot of baking going on in my house.

Here is the first vanilla recipe I made with a vanilla bean from the Vanilla Food Company. Definetly a keeper and very easy to make. I was actually surprise the first time I read this recipe because so far I had only ever baked with vanilla but never cooked. You will love this, I promise.

Sweat the onion, celeriac, celery and garlic until they’re tender and soft. Add the parsnips and continue to cook. Then add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the black seeds. Add pod and seeds to the simmering soup. Simmer for 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Remove the vanilla pod and discard, and stir in the cream. Puree the soup and season with a bit of salt and pepper and lemon juice. Enjoy!

* I do not get paid by the Vanilla Food Company and the opion voiced above is my opinion and based on my own experiences*